Introduction

Words: Da­ni­el C. Ro­berts, 1876.

Music: Na­tion­al Hymn George W. War­ren, 1888 (🔊 pdf nwc). War­ren wrote the mu­sic for the cen­ten­ni­al ce­le­bra­tion of the Unit­ed States Con­sti­tu­tion.

The hymn was writ­ten in 1876 for a ce­le­bra­tion of the Cen­ten­nial Fourth of Ju­ly, and sung at Bran­don, Ver­mont, to the tune called Rus­sian Hymn! When our Ge­ne­ral Con­ven­tion ap­point­ed a Com­mis­sion to re­vise the Hym­nal, I sent it, with­out my name, prom­is­ing to send the name if the hymn were ac­cept­ed. It was ac­cept­ed and print­ed ano­ny­mous­ly in the re­port of the Com­mis­sion.

Before the Hym­nal was print­ed, the Rev­er­end Dr. Tuck­er, late of Troy, ed­it­or of our best mu­sic­al Hym­nal, and Mr. George Will­iam War­ren, or­gan­ist of St. Tho­mas’ Church, New York, were ap­pointed to choose a hymn for the cen­ten­ni­al ce­le­bra­tion of the adop­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion. They se­lect­ed this hymn, then ano­ny­mous, and want­ing a tune, Mr. War­ren com­posed a tune to which it has since been set in the Tuck­er Hym­nal.